(Haarlem 1637–1701 Milan)
The Israelites crossing the Red Sea,
oil on canvas, 89 x 135 cm, framed

We are grateful to Anna Orlando for confirming the attribution and for her help in cataloguing this lot.

The present painting is characterised by an extraordinary chromatic vitality; it has been attributed to Pieter Mulier, called Il Cavalier Tempesta, and it constitutes an important addition to the artist’s oeuvre.

The episode portrayed is drawn from the Book of Exodus (14: 19-31) when Moses, leading the Hebrew people towards the Promised Land, was able to cross the waters of the Red Sea which at his command parted before them. Here we see the moment when Moses, high on a rocky outcrop, holding out his staff commanded the waters to close over the pursuing Egyptians. On the banks in the foreground his people rest after making the crossing while in the left background, in the middle of the sea, we see the Pharaoh’s chariots and cavalry panicking as the raging waters rush in on them.

According to Anna Orlandi it is possible to date this painting to the years 1687-1690, during the artist’s Venetian sojourn, where he reached the apogee of his career. In a letter Tempesta recounts how: ‘My arrival in this city has been appreciated by many dilettanti and gentlemen, because there are enough figure painters, but none of landscapes and marines and small animals, or those who are here are no good, for which reason there is no one want of work, thank God’ (see M. Roethlisberger, Cavalier Tempesta and his time, Cranbury 1970, p. 34).

The present painting reflects the characteristics of Tempesta’s Venetian period: a bright pallet in which the presence of a vivid blue is especially notable, with playful tonal contrasts of light and shade, and the choice of subject combining marine and landscape views with animals. Among the most significant works from his Venetian period are his renderings of a Landscape with the sacrifice to Noah in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana (inv. no. 1180; 122 x 178.5 cm) and another at Kassel (inv. no. 4141; 121 x 172 cm).

Mulier’s intelligently achieved formula for success combined the example of the Roman classical landscape, as brought into fashion by Claude and his fellow compatriot Gaspard Dughet, with his own northern taste for emotively dramatic lighting effects. After his journeys to Genoa and Venice he added components derived from the examples of Castiglione and Bassano including extensive corteges. His landscape paintings are built on these foundations, and only rarely did he venture into other thematic genres, thereby attaining assurance of fame and satisfaction. The only exception to this inclination to thematic consistency are his numerous marine views with tempests at sea with which he began his career and for which he earned the moniker of ‘Tempesta’.

The son of a marine painter, Mulier attained his first training at Haarlem and later sojourned at Antwerp before moving to Rome in 1656. In Rome he was a member of the Bentvueghels, a bohemian society of Northern artists, where received his Bent name of Tempeest.He remained there until 1668 where he updated his painting to embrace the classical landscape tradition. Following important Roman commissions for the Borghese, Chigi and Colonna families, he moved to Genoa where he remained from 1668 to 1684. There and where he was prolific and attained such artistic acclaim success that even after being imprisoned for the killing of his wife, when he underwent detainment the painter continued to executeing ‘tanti superbi quadri per uso di questi Cittadini, appresso de’ quali si conservano, e in gran pregio si tengono’ [‘many superb paintings for the use of these Citizens, by whom they are preserved, and held in very high esteem’] (see C. G. Ratti, Delle Vite..., Genoa 1769, p. 332). Subsequently, from 1684 until his death, there followed a further period of intense activity during his Milanese years. As the protégé of the Duke of Milan and the Borromeo family he also made journeys into Emilia and the Veneto.